High-profile names are among stranded passengers

Wakefield rock band the Cribs were among the victims, unable to fly to the USA where they were due to perform at the Coachella festival in California.

BBC football presenter Gary Lineker defied the odds to make a tortuous journey back from a holiday in Tenerife in time to front Saturday evening's Match of the Day as expected, but others have not been so fortunate.

Among the thousands of holidaymakers and business people stranded abroad was a school party still unable to return to West Yorkshire from Dubai, where they have been on a visit to play rugby.

The team of pupils from Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley, West Yorkshire, remained grounded in Dubai yesterday having flown out to the Middle East on a rugby tour.

They had been due to return to the UK on Thursday.

Otley and Yeadon councillor Ryk Downes, who is a school governor, said: "We hope that they will be able to come home as soon as possible.

"It's a natural disaster and we want them to return home safely and at the moment it is unsafe to fly and we would not want any risks involved in getting them back"

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's children are also affected, being unable to fly back from central Spain where they have been on holiday visiting his wife's family.

Members of one business delegation were back in the UK last night after making a journey by road from Milan, instead of flying back as expected.

More than 60 retailers from the Alno Group spent 27 hours

travelling back on a coach journey through Switzerland and France before returning to Heathrow.

The managing director of Bradford-based Approach PR, Suzanne Johns, who was with the group said: "We thought it would be absolute chaos at Calais but it wasn't.

"Heathrow was like a ghost town."